Confederate Arizona

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Arizona Territory
Organized incorporated territory of the Confederate States
1861–1865
Flag of the Confederate States (August 1, 1861)
Map of the Confederate States with Arizona Territory highlighted
Capital	Mesilla (1861–1862) San Antonio (in exile; 1862–1865)
Area
• Coordinates	32°16′N 106°42′W / 32.267°N 106.700°W / 32.267; -106.700
Government
• Type	Organized incorporated territory
Governor
• 1861–1862	Col. John R. Baylor
• 1862–1865	Dr. Lewis S. Owings (in exile)
Legislature	Arizona Territorial Legislature
Historical era	American Civil War
• Ordinance of Secession	March 28, 1861
• Col. Baylor's Proclamation[a]	1 August 1861
• Organized by Confederacy	January 18, 1862[1]
• Occupied by U.S.	July 8, 1862[2]
• Surrender of C.S. Trans-Mississippi Department	26 May 1865
Preceded by Succeeded by New Mexico Territory Arizona Territory New Mexico Territory
Today part of	United States Arizona New Mexico

Confederate States in the American Civil War
Alabama Arkansas Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia
Dual governments
Kentucky Missouri Virginia West Virginia
Territory
Arizona Territory
Allied tribes in Indian Territory
Cherokee Chickasaw Choctaw Creek Seminole
v t e

The Arizona Territory, colloquially referred to as Confederate Arizona, was an organized incorporated territory of the Confederate States of America that existed from August 1, 1861, to May 26, 1865, when the Confederate States Army Trans-Mississippi Department, commanded by General Edmund Kirby Smith, surrendered at Shreveport, Louisiana. However, after the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the Confederates had to retreat from the territory, and by July 1862, effective Confederate control of the territory had ended. Delegates to the secession convention had voted in March 1861 to secede from the New Mexico Territory and the Union, and seek to join the Confederacy. It consisted of the portion of the New Mexico Territory south of the 34th parallel, including parts of the modern states of New Mexico and Arizona. The capital was Mesilla, along the southern border. The breakaway region overlapped Arizona Territory, established by the Union government in February 1863.

Arizona was proclaimed a Confederate territory on August 1, 1861, after Colonel John R. Baylor's victory at the Battle of Mesilla. His hold on the area was broken after Glorieta Pass (March 26–28, 1862), the defining battle of the New Mexico Campaign. In July 1862, the Confederate territorial government withdrew to El Paso, Texas. With the approach of Union troops, it relocated to San Antonio, where it remained for the duration of the civil war. The territory continued to be represented in the Confederate States Congress, and Confederate troops continued to fight under the Arizona banner until the war ended.

The political geography of the two Arizona Territories differed in that the Confederate Arizona was approximately the southern half of the historic New Mexico Territory, while the Union-defined Arizona Territory was approximately the western half of what had been New Mexico Territory, which became the basis for present-day Arizona.

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